Leslie Jones, Associate Architect at CIDA, has been named a DJC Women of Vision honoree for 2021. With over 9 years in the industry, Leslie also brings a strong and diverse background in writing and working with a variety of people. Read on to learn more about Leslie!
How long has the nominee been in the industry?
Leslie Jones has been in the industry for over 9 years. Before her time as an architect, Leslie worked as a victims and witness coordinator for the state of Tennessee, a teacher with learning disabled and emotionally disturbed junior and senior high school students along with helping with the school’s yearbook production. This early experience with Photoshop allowed her to learn valuable photo editing skills she now uses to this day. In addition, working with kids with difficult learning disabilities has provided her with the patience and understanding that allows her to work with any personality type with ease and compassion.
Leslie held other positions early in her career that all possessed qualities she enjoyed and when the pieces finally fell together, she realized that architecture was her true path. With already having a Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communication, and a minor in Russian Literature, she went back to school to obtain her Masters degree in Architecture.
Now, having been in the industry for almost 10 years and with such a diverse background, Leslie has brought to the CIDA team her skills, knowledge and perseverance that has helped our company grow to where we are today.
What are the significant accomplishments of the nominee within her company?
From early on in her career it was evident that Leslie was gifted. She had the expected creative gifts that architects tend to have – a keen eye for design, proportions, and graphics, but where she stood out was her ability to analyze a problem, dissect it in its entirety, and reassemble it into an outstanding solution. She does this with different scales of problems, from the smallest of details to entire buildings. In 2013 Leslie, who had a newly acquired title as Project Manager, was given an opportunity to design a high-profile office building in Grants Pass, Oregon. Given some intentionally vague concepts by CIDA’s president as a test, Leslie labored tirelessly over a building design that would go on to win 3rd place in the DJC’s Top Projects for New Office Buildings. Perhaps even more of a testament to her potential as an aspiring architect than her DJC award, at the time that building was being constructed another of Leslie’s projects a few blocks away was also going up. Together they were represented by the only two cranes punctuating the Grants Pass skyline that summer.
Although a talented architect, Leslie’s achievements are in far more than architectural design. As a graduate of literature in a previous life Leslie also brings to the table something rare among us ‘right-brainers’ – the ability to write, and to write well. As such, Leslie’s journalistic gifts were quickly realized at CIDA by putting her in charge of our marketing efforts where she resided as CIDA’s in-house Director of Marketing for nearly a decade. With her at CIDA’s marketing helm, and always with a full-time architectural workload, Leslie took our marketing efforts to a level not before seen at CIDA. Where we were responding to half a dozen RFPs in a year, we were able to increase that five-fold. And not only were we better able to respond to more RFPs, we were starting to be awarded at a steady rate and in highly competitive markets.
Additionally, as an extraordinarily grounded architect, Leslie can be paired with the most challenging of clients. She puts her clients’ best interests before her own, to listen when a client needs to be heard, and to soundly advise when a client needs guidance. Her ability to gage a challenging situation and steer it towards a successful outcome is truly unparalleled at CIDA. This skill has led to Leslie taking over management of projects mid-stride where only someone with her gentle nature and acute wisdom could succeed.
Provide some examples of the nominee’s involvement in the community.
Leslie has been a strong asset to CIDA for our non-profit sector by expanding our client base and becoming an advocate for our clients. By getting involved and talking extensively with our non-profit clients, Leslie is able to get to the root of any issue or problem and can find a solution that creates a better environment. She has worked with our long-standing client, The Salvation Army, on multiple occasions to create welcoming and safe spaces for their patrons and staff.
Outside of Leslie’s official work hours, she also gives of her personal time and coordinates with our many consultants and community partners to amplify pro-bono services to assist our non-profit projects. She understands the service these partners provide to our community and does all she can to raise those efforts to maximum heights.
With her previous experience working within the judicial system and victim advocacy, she is able to bring a unique perspective to projects, identifying and improving physical and emotional safety within spaces. This one act can improve these communities from the inside out and appear effortless.
Beyond Leslie’s professional commitment to our non-profit clients, she has given of her personal time to facilitate community events and fundraising efforts. She has volunteered as a set lighting technician at Multnomah Arts Center & assisted Lakewood Center for the Arts to pivot to during this COVID struggle and conduct performances virtually. Leslie truly embodies the “show must go on” attitude.
Leslie is also a cheerleader for others in their non-profit and personal growth efforts. She was one of the first in line to support a coworker in her Girls, Inc. building rappel in downtown Portland. She is always eager to support and encourage. She is actively engaged in all of CIDA’s non-profit “events”, from can food and personal hygiene drives to holiday toy drives and CIDA-Arfitech’s OHS Doggie Dash team.
Leslie is a warm-hearted, soft-spoken, highly committed person and brings enthusiasm to every venture in which she is involved.
What leadership and mentoring efforts has the nominee shown?
Leslie joined CIDA at the infancy of the Great Recession recovery where the economy and CIDA were just positioning themselves to make a rebound. At CIDA we wanted to not only use this time to return to where we were but poise ourselves in nimble fashion to move and grow. Leslie was a pivotal hire, some might not expect this intern, freshly graduated from University of Tennessee with her Masters of Architecture and recently relocated to Portland, to help us blow our goals out of the water! She contributed directly to the team through her mentorship of the ownership team in ways to refine and improve our marketing graphics and writing to bring clarity to connect with project leads.
She brings a set of unique qualifications that aren’t commonly found in architects – she is a linguist at heart with a sophisticated and keen eye. Now a licensed architect, with a unique and diverse background that is honed by her life experiences, Leslie is uniquely qualified to lead her team on any scale or complexity of project. Her calm and nonjudgmental way she interacts instills confidence into the team, confidence in her and confidence in each member. Leslie has been instrumental with the evolution of growth in the company and many attribute it to her gentle way of communicating and mentoring with the office to all levels, her peers, her staff, and her superiors. Her mentorship is not limited to the common thought of from the top down, but she does as much if not more from the bottom up.
Oftentimes a seasoned architect will look to Leslie to help put their thoughts into a cohesive letter, marketing presentation for a new client or coach them for an interview for an exciting project. Leslie approaches every task with a calm and even keeled demeaner, which gives those she works with a feeling of ease and precision that they’ve come to know and trust.